Ok I have so far managed to beat all the other quests and dungeons other than the vicious ones. Though I managed to win dragon isles once with an assassin when I got to level 10 before descending to the final boss level (which made it a breeze). But otherwise I'm kinda struggling so I would like some hints on these dungeons. Like what characters are ideal for each dungeon and what kind of preparations should I do? Or how did you manage to beat them?

Dragon Isles; getting clever about the bodyguards is good, or being able to spike them while leaving a lot of popcorn up top to burn off all the Curse layers. There's also getting to L10 up top and then knocking out one guard down below and using WONAFYT to pull the boss out from behind the guards. You'll also almost assuredly want to do Dragon Isles first.

Vicious Halls of Steel: The main reason for wanting to do DI first is that both rewards come in handy here. Other than that, to go light on spoilers, all I'm going to say is prep Bear Mace every time, no matter what. :p EDIT: I'll also add, without spoiling, that there are reasons that Sorcerer is a very awesome class for one of your three here.

Naga City: Resists and longevity. Also, prep an altar for the topside, else you won't see one. Preferably a piety farm one. Getting Agnostic's Collar and/or Midas Gloves here is a huge boon, but not necessary. You'll see why later.

Namtar/Library: Wait until you finish the other three. :p

Last edited by Wargasm on Wed Dec 04, 2013 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Dragon Isles; getting clever about the bodyguards is good, or being able to spike them while leaving a lot of popcorn up top to burn off all the Curse layers.

There are a few good approaches here.

One is to worship the Glowing Guardian. The "Enlightenment" boon removes all curse layers, and is the only effect in the game to do so.

Another option is to use the LEMMISI and WEYTWUT glyphs together. This allows you to reveal the Matron's bodyguards, then swap positions with them to get to the Matron without fighting them. You can also use the ENDISWAL glyph to bypass the first two guards. As Wargasm mentions, WONAFYT is another option here.

Then there's the simple approach of not bothering with resistances. Curses can't hurt you if you don't have any resistances in the first place. Use heavy-hitters like the Rogue or Warlord for this approach.

Since Wargasm doesn't cover them, I'll talk about the other two vicious scenarios

Namtar's LairThis level can be tough to get traction in. I find Jehora Jeheyu is your best deity, since his health boost enables you to survive the boss's high attack damage sooner, his weakening/corrosion clear helps remove the debuffs the boss incurs, and his boost mana boon effectively cancels the crippling penalties you suffer as you approach the end of the dungeon run.

The biggest thing to beware of is that one of Namtar's later forms has 75% physical resistance. Since you'll be cut off from deities at this point and carrying a RBS this deep into the dungeon is impractical, you must take BURNDAYRAZ with you and have some method of mana spiking (usually BLUDTUPOWA or potions).

I personally recommend the Warlord for this dungeon.

Demonic LibraryThe key here is to begin the boss fights against the demons as early as possible. Their stats aren't actually that impressive, and some of the level 8 and 9 monsters are actually stronger than they are. This means that they're great sources of bonus XP. Because you will have trouble surviving their attacks, so glass-cannon style characters like the Warlord or Rogue work very well here. Be mindful of the demons who have abilities that are strong against you; you want to leverage level-up catapults to weaken them before making a swift kill.

I did Dragon Isles with a Berserker, Warlord, and Assassin. Berserker is definitely the easiest, since both bosses and many of the monsters here deal magic damage. In hind-sight, I think a Transmuter would have worked better than the Warlord, since the final boss here has lots of blackspace that lets you regen-fight well with LEMMISI, if you get other items to support it. Either way, magic resist works well here. Prepping a slayer wand to kill one of the guards helps, and prepping a transmutation scroll to erase the wall to skip two of the guards is good, too.

Vicious Steel I did Berserker, Sorcerer, and Priest. Biggest piece of advice here: either prep a platemail, or prep Taurog or Earthmother. Damage block is king in Vicious Steel since it severely weakens one of the main bosses.

Naga City works best with regen-fighters. I did it with Paladin, Monk, and Assassin. It's...difficult to explain this one without having gone through it just once, but I tended to have a much easier time if I found some way to make myself immune to poison.

This is a simple, monotheistic strategy that requires no god switching and relies on heavy conversion. Because you're junking most glyphs and items, you don't need to worry about tricky combos. It's also designed to avoid aggravating inventory issues.

The idea is that you convert almost everything you find. Hold onto utility glyphs until the exploration phase is over, and keep one repeatable combat glyph (Fireball, PISORF, or HALPMEH). Everything else gets junked. Search the shops for the Venom Ward, Soul Orb, and maybe the Fine Sword. Troll Heart is good if found at first level. Any left over cash goes to buying conversion fodder. Don't worry about saving gold for the altars downstairs.

Use the Strength and Quicksilver potions to kill a level 3 or higher monster right from the start. Don't try to save those potions for later, their purpose to break open the beginning of the game and then leave your inventory.

Take 5-ish doses of Absolution, and do not forget to take Humility at level 2. Patches will be aggravating, but you should be able to shrug off most of his maledictions using level ups. If you get stuck, use a Burn Salve or Fortitude, or a Cleansing if you get really stuck. Get rid of Patches before entering the arena, but try to keep him until right before going down.

Most classes try to preserve their dings for the arena, but you won't need to. Kill almost everything topside. Aim to be level 8 (effectively level 9 because of Humility) and at least 14 points away from 9 so that your first bosskill will level you up. If you can get closer, all the better. Take Enlightenment when your piety starts to overflow. The extra mana is useful.

You will destroy the arena. You'll have 20-ish extra health from Absolution, 8 buffs from Patches, 18 mana because of Enlightenment, and damage ranging somewhere between 140-160. Your first bosskill will give you enough gold to unlock GG's altar. Use Cleansing to deal with Tower of Goo and the Tormented One if you have to, although with 18 mana you probably don't.

Man, something must have changed about Namtar's. I don't know if I was abusing Tri-Sword or what (probably) but that place seems way worse than I recall. Did they change the monster selection or something? Increase the second form's HP? If Vampires could worship Binlor to up their magic resist...

Ah, wait. I think Monks still had magic resist when I last did Namtar's. Sort of strange Berserker is the last class to have any. Surprised Sorcerer never ended up with 25% or so. Seems like they could use a bone. VHoS is the only time I've thought to want one.

I don't think my normal "throw Dwarven Rogues at it until it goes away" approach is going to work here. This guy doesn't spawn a bunch of one-shottable drones. :/

As far as I know, they added resists to form 1 and curse to form 2, but there are even more changes depending on the last time you played it. Other than that, not really. It is just the second hardest vicious dungeon.

Hm. If Monk still had Magic resist and form two didn't have Curse...yeah, that'd make quite a bit of difference.

(Side note; Is Tri-Sword ever useful now? I've tried using it a few times, and it spends 90% of the dungeon being half a Fine Sword, and then when I'm actually using potions, I'm using them generally every hit, so I get 4-5 hits that are better than a Fine Sword and dozens that are worse.)